In Washington, unlikely bedfellows like Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon talk about making AI "humans first"

Washington — Steve Bannon, one of President Trump's earliest advisers, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders may stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but both spoke at a gathering Tuesday to press for guardrails for AI. 

The two — along with a bipartisan group of members of Congress — appeared at the "Pro-Human Assembly" in Washington, D.C. They're calling for a "human-centric" approach to developing artificial intelligence technology, and are skeptical of the AI companies leading the industry.

On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the frontier AI labs, which was quickly echoed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Liberal and conservative members of Congress are also urging caution. 

"If AI surpasses human intelligence, as many scientists believe could happen, this technology will escape human control with potentially catastrophic consequence," Sanders said as he opened his remarks. "And perhaps the most important point that I want to leave with you this afternoon is that AI is advancing exponentially — exponentially every single day. In other words, what you are looking at right now is the least capable version of AI that we will ever have."

Bannon, taking the stage after Sanders, applauded the senator for his speech, saying they may disagree politically and on Mr. Trump, but they're "trying to rise above partisanship, and we have to."

Bannon blasted the tech CEOs who have spoken out to say they need more regulations. "That's a bald-faced lie," Bannon said, claiming tech CEOs want to "socialize" the risk, shut out competitors and reap the financial benefits for themselves. Bannon said the companies are trying to make a "liability shift to the American people." Bannon also said Americans, not the U.S. government, need to reap the benefits of the upside of AI, not the government. 

Concern about the ability to control AI's growth has been building. Earlier this month, AI researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned from Anthropic, which makes the AI app Claude, and said that artificial intelligence, while safe for people to use now, could one day threaten humanity as the technology grows more powerful. 

"If you have a super advanced intelligence, it could — it will be smart enough to kill us," Coxon told CBS News senior business and technology correspondent Jo Ling Kent. He accused Anthropic and rival developer and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI of "gambling with our lives" by racing to develop advanced AI models.

At the same time, though, Mr. Trump fired off seven Truth Social posts about AI throughout Monday, repeatedly calling fears over rapid AI development a "HOAX" and saying all AI needs is a strong president like him. 

GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a staunch conservative from Texas, told the conference that the crux of the issue goes well beyond "raw politics." Roy said he hears his constituents' concerns in Texas about data centers, citing their worries about competing with data centers for water and about the noise the centers generate. But the fear goes much deeper, he said. 

"They raise questions about their future. They raise questions about what it means for their children, their communities," he said at the conference, adding, "So, the question here is, how do you harness the power of human-created technology to put — as we are here to discuss — humans first?"

CBS News polling from May shows 65% of Americans think AI will decrease jobs, and 67% of Americans think the federal government probably or certainly will not make sure AI is used in appropriate ways. 

Roy said he's been "scolded" by some of his free-enterprise Republican friends for raising these questions. He also said he disagrees with Mr. Trump, who maintains that a strong president is all that's needed to safeguard AI. Roy also expressed skepticism about the motives of AI CEOs like Amodei. 

"Might they be self-interested?" Roy said. "Might they want to corner the market and have a monopoly environment?"

AI needs to be "humans first," Roy said. "We are not supposed to be tools for data collection and technology. That should be what drives everything that we're thinking about going forward."

Just before Roy spoke, Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, a progressive from Texas, took the stage and raised U.S. competitive interests remniscient of the Cold War. "We may be Americans or Soviets or Chinese, but we are still human," Casar said. "Now just as back then, we need a pro-human approach."

"No one can end the AI arms race. It's up to us to end the AI arms race," Casar said. 

Rep. Lori Trahan, a Democrat from Massachusetts addressed the gathering after Roy, and took note of the bipartisanship in the room and in Congress on the issue. Trahan introduced the FRONTIER Act with Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte of California, calling for independent evaluators of frontier AI models, among other things. 

"Humans are not means to artificial ends," Trahan said. "We are ends in ourselves."

Trahan told reporters that it makes it harder for her Republican colleagues when the leader of their party is speaking out against something that's gaining bipartisan momentum, but she still expects movement on legislation in the weeks ahead.

Sanders on Tuesday said Congress has "been asleep at the wheel, and we now have a president whose ignorance regarding this issue is truly embarrassing." 

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he and AI company chiefs will meet with Mr. Trump at the White House "within the next week." 

But Bannon doesn't think Congress can fix it. 

"This has to be an executive action," he said, even as his former boss, Mr. Trump, has passionately spoken out against further regulation.